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Author: Mason Lerner

Mason Lerner is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Swack.News. He has written for Vogue.com, ESPN the Magazine and the Associated Press. He currently covers information technology for Spiceworks.com. He has a strong background in daily journalism as a former reporter for the Galveston County Daily News, business editor for the Killeen Daily Herald and small business columnist for the Houston Chronicle.
Lerner also writes and draws comic books. Check out www.fancyturkeymedia.com to see his art.

Here is a look at a piece I was working on for a baby naming just before the flood hit. The baby’s name is Esther Maya. I did not have all the info on the spelling when I started doodling the “Scroll of Esther” version. But the script came out to pretty for me to abandon it.

If you need Jewish-themed art for any occasion, I’d love to hear from you.

There has never been a fight this hyped that so few people actually care about. Think about it. Do you care who wins this fight? Do you know anyone who cares who wins this fight?

Don’t get me wrong. McGregor has a huge fanbase that cares a lot. But beyond that, I’m just not feeling the interest in this fight at the cultural level a megafight needs to live up to the claim that it will be the biggest fight of all time.

Which leads us to the five things you’re probably wrong about regarding “Mayweather vs. McGregor:

1. This Will Not Be the Biggest Fight of All Time

I keep reading and hearing that Mayweather – McGregor is going to be the biggest moneymaking fight of all time. This hype is usually coming out of someone associated with the fight’s mouth, a media source that reprinted a news release or Brendan Schaub’s piehole, but that don’t make it so.

We’re two days away from fight night and the arena still isn’t sold out. Mayweather-Pacquiao, which had a low tickets price of $4,000, sold out weeks before the fight. Mayweather – McGregor tickets are still available at around $1,000 and dropping.

I have a personal acquaintance that hilariously bought two tickets for $4,000 thinking he’d be able to flip them for a profit. He can’t get $4,000 for both of them on eBay at the moment.

It’s certainly not going to be the biggest gate in boxing history. And given that nobody outside of McGregor fans seems to be emotionally invested in this fight, there really isn’t a reason to believe it will break PPV records.

2. Betting just can’t be THAT robust

I have read some patently absurd claims about betting. We can’t know the actual numbers until next month, but most of what I’m reading has to be incorrect.

I’ve read bookmakers claiming they’re expecting it to be as big a day for them as the Super Bowl. These same articles tell us that 90 percent of the betting is on McGregor. So unless there is a huge tide of Floyd bettors waiting for the best possible odds to turn huge money into slightly huger money, that means we are to believe Conor McGregor is as popular as the NFL.

Not buying it.

3. It Ain’t Going to be Fixed

The reasons this fight won’t be fixed are manifold. One is that typically a fix means that the underdog wins. But if everyone is betting on the underdog and he wins, there will suddenly be a lot of bookmakers wearing fake mustaches and working at Cinnabons in malls across the country come Monday morning.

So we know it’s not fixed for McGregor. It just wouldn’t make financial sense. A McGregor win would be a crushing blow to bookmakers, legit and otherwise.

And don’t worry about a rematch. Ain’t gonna to be no rematch. If it goes the distance, which it assuredly should not, the only people in the building who will want McGregor to win will be McGregor and his fans.

Imagine Dana White explaining to his fighter why they should keep fighting in the UFC for peanuts when they can compete with elite boxers for mega-millions? That’s what a McGregor victory would do.

Really, if he even looks decent, the UFC is in trouble.

Anybody looking for the scam/angle here doesn’t need to look too deep. It’s pretty straight forward. Bookmakers are getting marks to hand them free money at a pretty good clip. That’s the long and short of it.

4. This isn’t a Fight, We Are Seeing Personified Click Bait

People want a spectacle. But they don’t want to pay too much for it. It’s just like how you want to click on a link that tells you how the cast of Degrassi looks now, but you would never pay for it. That’s classic click bait.

This fight is click bait personified. It’s why the arena isn’t sold out. It’s why the PPV numbers will probably disappoint. It’s why they’ve been forced to offer free hats and 30-days free to UFC Fight Pass for people who pre-order.

Nobody cares enough to pay an amount of money they will feel for this fight.

5. Conor McGregor is Not as Popular as They Seem to Think He Is

Conor McGregor is incredibly popular. He has a loud, loyal fan base in the millions that absolutely loves him. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read the comment “Fook da Mayweathers” under Youtube videos recently.

But Conor McGregor is not a household name. He’s just not. He’s a superstar in MMA circles. He’s well-known to the world at large. But he’s no Muhammad Ali. He’s not even 1980’s Steve Guttenberg famous. And that’s the kind of fame you need to sell shlock like this.

McGregor fights typically draw just over two million PPV buys at a lower price point. It’s pretty well established that it’s his fans that are really forming the base of people willing to spend money on this. Mayweather is predicting five million buys.

Here’s the five coolest things I found about comic book art on WordPress today:

The Butterfly Stage – This is an autobiographical look at mental illness and creativity by London-based comic book creator Bryony Attenburrow.

The art is simple, but emotive, which is probably what you’re looking for when you’re trying to give people a glimpse of the mental illness that curses you.

Lady Cult Blog – This here lady cult curates comic book art, which sounds like a fun thing to do. But I have to give her special recognition for including Planet of Vampires. That’s some yummy 70’s schlock right there.

I’m also a sucker for retro-horror comics covers, so this was some good inspiration for the day.

We are the Mutants – This post is a one stop shop for sound effect brainstorming. The Mutants provide a nice sampling of sound effect graphics from 1939 – 1985.

Bookidote – The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelmen is out. Bookidote does a good job of explaining why you might want to check it out even if you’ve read the whole series already.

Hchom.com – A look at a few BEAUTIFUL text-free comics pages by. It’s a site a just stumbled up, and I’m a sucker for a good story told exclusively by images.

Looks like I found it too late though. The artist used the same post to announce it would be his last post on that site. But not to worry. There will be a new site, which is good. I want to know what happens next!

A Literal Look at the Surreal; The Marx Brothers Meet Salvador Dali

This is an 11 X 17 India Ink piece I did based on a film script Salvador Dali wrote for the Marx Brothers. It’s quite a story. Long story short, Salvador Dali spent a lot of time writing scripts that were too wacky to be made and he loved him some Harpo Marx.

The two had a bit of a bromance in the 1930’s that…I’ll just let Salvador describe the time he visited Harpo in Cali. The legendary Surrealist said he found Harpo:

“naked, crowned with roses, and in the centre of a veritable forest of harps… He was caressing, like a new Leda, a dazzling white swan, and feeding it a statue of the Venus de Milo made of cheese…”

Um…K.

Anyway, he wrote an insane script that included the Marx Brothers. How insane?

Let’s just say that “A horde of burning giraffes wearing gas masks, cyclists balancing loaves on their heads and Harpo catching dwarves with a butterfly net? That’s just not funny,” is something Groucho Marx could have conceivably said.

This likeness of Chico, Harpo and Groucho along with Dali’s fictional “Surrealist Woman” from the pages of the script is a showstopper. It’s impossible for someone to walk into a room and not marvel and ask about it.

And then you get to look smart because you drop some esoteric Dali knowledge, still the most impressive type of esoteric knowledge at cocktail parties.

This is a look at the first page of my comic, “The Illustrated Woman.” It features Daniel Mendoza, who serves as the book’s narrator as well as one of its main characters. The book itself goes back and forth from stand-alone stories created from the tattoos that cover the Illustrated Woman’s body to a longer narrative about the circus itself.

As cool and sexy as the Illustrated Woman is, Mendoza is an interesting character in his own right.

The character is based on the real Daniel Mendoza, who is considered to be the the “father of scientific boxing.” He reigned as the champion of England from 1792-1795.

“The Illustrated Woman” takes place in a universe where all of this is true, but he also operates a super natural circus. I mean, why wouldn’t he?